prospect of enrichment he had not as yet enjoyed. With the approval of the Regent, the Abbé was accordingly deputed to perform the delicate task of making Law a Catholic. A short time was allowed to elapse before the actual ceremony took place, and in the interval it was supposed that Law, under the spiritual guidance of the Abbé, was preparing himself for the solemn and important step he was about to take. But by no ingenious form of deception, however mild, was the Abbé able to give even a colour of sincerity to Law’s conversion, and he was therefore placed under the necessity of choosing some other place than Paris for the performance of the ceremony lest the people, outraged in their notions of religious propriety, should resort to forcible measures to prevent the ceremony from taking place. The Church of the Récollets in Melun was accordingly chosen as a sufficiently safe and retired scene for the abjuration, and on 17th September, 1719, the necessary formalities were performed, the Abbé retiring from “his pious task with many shares and bank-notes.” The event was made the occasion of sarcastic verse of which a few fragments still survive. The following fragment preserved in the “Memoris du Maréchal Duc de Richelieu” celebrates the bestowal of the title of Primate of the Mississippi upon the Abbé by the Colonel of the Regiment of Skull-Caps, a burlesque association which jested on all events:-- Nous Colonel de la Calotte, Pour empêcher par tous moyens, Que l’erreur des Luthériens Et que la Doctrine Huguenotte N’infecte notre Régiment D’un pernicieux sentiment; Et pour mettre dans la voye, Quiconque seroit fourvoyé, Et seroit devenu la proye De l’Hérétique Devoyé. A ces causes, vu la science, Bonnes mœurs, doctrine, éloquence Et zele que l’Abbé Tencin A fait paroître sur-tout autre; Pour le salut de son prochain, Nous lui donnons Lettre d’Apôtre, Et de convertisseur en chef; D’autant qu’en homme apostolique, Il a rendu Law Catholique: En outre par le même bref, Voulant illustrer la soutane, Et donner du poids aux Sermons Dudit Abbé; nous le nommons _Primat de la Louisiane._ De plus, quoique l’Abbé susdit, Plein d’un évangélique esprit, Meprise les biens de ce monde, Et que même contre eux il fronde. De notre libéralité Pour soutenir sa dignité, En conséquence du systême Lui déléguons dîme on dixieme Sur les brouillards dudit pays, Qui du systême sont le prix; Espérant qui la Cour de Rome Donnera les Bulles gratis.